I felt compelled to take a day trip from Kyoto down to Hiroshima with my family to visit and reflect on the horrors of nuclear weapons. We took an early morning bullet train from Kyoto and arrived in Hiroshima at 10am and went straight to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Peace Memorial Park & Museum. Goes without saying that it’s a place to reflect, very humbling to read about how the city and people lives changed in an instance. I’m glad we arrived as early as we did - by midday, the park and in particular the museum were rammed with school trips and tour parties all jostling to read the exhibits to the point where, in my opinion, it was disrespectful to the thousands of people that lost their lives. The bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki is something that we have all read about in the history books and on the internet, visiting it in person really rams it home that atomic weapons should never be used again. Certainly a day trip worth considering if you are in Kyoto or Osaka region.
I pledge to do everything in my power to make sure this never happens again. If you have a heart, this will rip it out. Make sure to go to the museum and the victim's memorial. Some of the "side" spots, like the Korean victims memorial are worth a few steps off the path to see.
We traveled by train to Hiroshima. On arrival there were many staff around helping tourists. The staff at the information office provided maps and additional information to make our visit run smoothly.
As we had a JR rail pass we could travel for free on the hop on hop off bus. The driver takes a photo of your pass each trip.
We visited the Atomic bomb dome and then walked through the park stopping as some of the monument- the Cenotaph, the children’s peace monument...
I was perplexed by people taking Happy fun family photos at some of the monuments. This is not an “Instagram “ opportunity.
Don’t miss the underground peace memorial hall. Beautifully presented. I was surprised to read the Japanese took the responsibility and didn’t move the blame to other countries.
You can visit Hiroshima in a day. We traveled from Kyoto. We caught an early morning train.
This was far more contemplative than I thought it would be. The school tours seem to be never ending but they are well behaved and can be avoided by changing direction or sitting for a few minutes.
It is well laid out and is within a short walk of the atomic bomb dome which forms one end of the main axis of the park.
Worth a visit to give the historic event a human perspective.
Ride the bus and get down here so you can walk tothe museum.hopefully one day the pace flame can benput off when the whole world be in peace
